A Chat with Planet Opal (12.06.25)
Travelling from dance-punk to krautrock, post-punk to disco, Planet Opal floats along with an experimental sheen. Drawing together the eccentricities of Giorgia Assi (vocals and synths) and Leonardo De Franceschi (drums and percussion), the pair stun you into submission, leaving you travelling on a hazy sonic cloud. We speak with Planet Opal about their album, Recreate Patterns, Release Energy, genre diversity, and much more.
OSR: The album title Recreate Patterns, Release Energy is both poetic and thought-provoking. What sparked this concept, and how did it evolve throughout the making of the album?
Planet Opal: The album was born from a deep desire to break repetitive patterns – not only musically, but also personally. Recreate Patterns, Release Energy captures the tension between adapting to modern life and reclaiming a more authentic, personal energy, free from conditioning. We wanted to address everyday challenges: the disorientation of the digital world, the difficulty of forming genuine connections, contemporary alienation, and the rediscovery of the self. This concept guided the entire creative journey, transforming the album into more than sound – a real emotional and spiritual exploration. After a period of emotional and creative stagnation, a separation, with one of us moving to a new city, the project became a way to break invisible chains, turning repetition into a tool for liberation.
OSR: You recorded the album across two countries – Italy and Germany. How did the geographic distance and local environments influence the album’s sound or creative process?
Planet Opal: The distance changed our approach and writing process. Initially, we worked separately, sending ideas and drafts back and forth. This gave us more freedom, allowing each of us to develop ideas independently, without immediate influence from the other. Beyond the workflow, the environments shaped the music’s mood. In Berlin, there’s a strong culture of experimentation and emotional rawness – it gave us the courage to go deep into abstraction and embrace non-traditional structures. Italy, on the other hand, brought a different type of influence – more intimate, melancholic, instinctive. The tension between these two worlds, introspection and catharsis, fed into the writing. In the end, the distance made the collaboration stronger and more intentional.
OSR: Your music spans krautrock, shoegaze, grunge, and experimental electronics. How do you merge these influences into a cohesive sound without losing spontaneity?
Planet Opal: Honestly, it was a natural outcome. Our musical backgrounds are quite different, and when we started playing together, there was a spark. For one of us, electronic music was still unexplored territory; for the other, it was already a familiar language. This contrast led to an exchange where our respective influences started blending. We found ourselves studying and experimenting with sounds we hadn’t considered before, until we reached a balance that felt right. There was no scientific method. When we hit the sound we were searching for, we just knew.
OSR: There’s a tension in the album between structure and freedom. How does this play out between drums and synths, rhythm and texture, in your collaboration?
Planet Opal: That tension is where the magic lies. The drums often act as an anchor, a living pulse grounding the track, while the synths drift and stretch time, like fog over a landscape. We often created a deliberate push and pull: moments where everything locks in, and others where it feels like things are about to fall apart. That tension mirrors how we experience life – structured yet unstable, predictable but fragile.
OSR: The concept revolves around breaking free from ingrained patterns. Were there specific personal or societal patterns you confronted while writing?
Planet Opal: Absolutely. On a personal level, we were facing emotional blockages, repetitive thoughts, stagnant relationships, and routines that felt like traps. On a societal level, we confronted the pressure of algorithmic logic, productivity culture, and the constant performance of the self on social media. We also questioned how difficult it is to truly feel in a world that encourages detachment. Writing this album became our way of pushing back against that numbness – sometimes embracing repetition until it broke, other times injecting chaos.
OSR: Tracks on the album move between dreamy introspection and intense drive. How do you manage these emotional contrasts in composition and arrangement?
Planet Opal: We don’t see contrast as something to “balance” in the classical sense, but rather as a way to amplify both extremes. Placing fragility next to explosiveness makes both feel more vivid.
Sometimes we let a track breathe in one emotion before disrupting it; other times we layer conflicting emotions, like a soft melody over a pounding beat, to reflect the complexity of the human psyche. It’s rarely linear; it always oscillates.
OSR: Giorgio, as the producer and vocalist, how do you layer vocals within such dense, synth-heavy textures without overwhelming the atmosphere?
Giorgio Assi: I treat the voice as another texture, it doesn’t need to lead. Sometimes it’s just a whisper in the fog, other times it comes forward. I often manipulate vocals like synths or field recordings: cutting, resampling, filtering, reamping. The lyrics are usually minimal, looped, or fragmented, inviting intuitive, emotional interpretation instead of a fixed meaning. I like vocals that feel like they belong to the environment, like echoes from another dimension.
OSR: Leonardo, your drumming brings visceral, organic energy. What rhythmic ideas or traditions influenced your contribution?
Leonardo De Franceschi: My biggest inspirations come from drummers I’ve admired since childhood. Keith Moon definitely shaped me, his drumming was all emotion and energy, with unpredictable fills and a groove that didn’t rely on technical perfection. I even emulate his choice to avoid the hi-hat by never using a ride cymbal – there’s none in my kit.
John Bonham also had a huge impact, especially his power and presence. More recently, I’ve been inspired by Dan Mayo, who merges drumming with electronics using pedals and effects to create rich textures. His track ‘Clindrata Ritmica’ was a direct influence.
The real breakthrough for me was understanding that a single detail – an accent, a different drum – can radically transform a track.
OSR: Was there a moment when you realized the album was more personal or transformative than expected?
Planet Opal: As with much of our work, things evolved more from chaos than from a clear vision. We never sat down with a concept in mind, it was the sound that guided us.
The album spans four years, and so much happened, personally, emotionally, globally. Some tracks were born during the pandemic, others came during that strange post-lockdown phase and so on. The real moment of clarity came with the final track, the title track. It tied everything together unexpectedly, showing us that we’d been documenting a deeper transformation all along. We didn’t plan to express that, it slowly revealed itself through the music.
OSR: What do you hope listeners take away from this album, not just sonically, but emotionally or conceptually?
Planet Opal: We hope it resonates with anyone going through inner shifts – those moments when you’re stuck in a loop but something inside wants to change. This isn’t a record that gives answers. Instead, it creates space for reflection, emotion, and movement. If someone listens and feels seen, or finds a rhythm that helps them process something unspoken, then we’ve done our job.
Many thanks to Planet Opal for speaking with us. Find out more about Planet Opal on their Instagram and Spotify.
